Best Apex settings for RX 5500 XT
Recommended at 1080p: expect 50–90 FPS after applying the playbook below. Your RX 5500 XT is the limiting factor in Apex.
At 1080p, Apex's rendering pipeline saturates a D-tier AMD GPU before any CPU draw-call limit. Settings that reduce GPU load (shader quality, shadow detail, particle resolution, upscaling) produce the biggest FPS gains. Settings that ease CPU work (view distance, draw distance) help less.
Apply these settings in Apex
Ranked by FPS impact for tier D hardware. Apply the high-impact ones first — top three usually account for 60% of the gain.
Adds input lag, ruins responsiveness. Apex caps at 300 FPS engine-side; no need for vsync.
Largest single FPS gain in Apex. Visibility doesn't suffer.
Huge GPU cost, dust effects barely visible. Always disabled in competitive setups.
Set to your VRAM minus ~1GB to leave headroom for the OS. Your 8GB card can comfortably stream 7GB of textures.
Sun shadows are a big GPU expense in outdoor zones. Low both keeps frametimes flat in firefights.
Big FPS spike when multiple bodies drop. Low keeps the fight clean.
Removes intro video and unlocks the FPS cap so you hit the engine's 300 ceiling on a capable GPU.
AMD-specific tweaks
These are in AMD Adrenalin Software.
Equivalent to Reflex on AMD. ~10–20 ms input lag reduction on supported titles.
Lowers resolution dynamically during fast motion. Helps mid-tier cards hold framerate but adds blur — tune to taste.
Caps FPS based on movement to save power. Don't use in competitive — it adds frame variance.
About the RX 5500 XT
The RX 5500 XT (2019 release, 8GB VRAM) is a entry-level card. At 1080p in Apex, the biggest FPS levers are upscaling, shadow detail, and brand-specific latency reducers (AMD Anti-Lag). The settings above are the floor — for a fully personalized playbook factoring CPU, RAM, and your monitor refresh rate, run BetterFPS.